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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Historical romance author Merry Farmer is celebrating the release of her latest Montana Romance novel, In Your Arms! To celebrate, Merry as provided Leatherbound Reviews readers with a tasty excerpt from In Your Arms as well as a giveaway! Enter to win a $10 Amazon gift card and an e-book copy of In Your Arms. Make sure you COMMENT and FILL OUT the RAFFLECOPTER form BELOW!

Today I would like to welcome two of Cold Springs, Montana’s
residents, Miss Lily Singer and Mr. Christian Avery, to the blog.

Christian:That’s Christian Avery, Justice of the Peace.

Lily: (rolls eyes)

Interviewer:It sounds like you’re very serious about your
position in Cold Springs, Mr. Avery.

Christian:I am!I’ve lived in Cold Springs for more than ten years now and the lives of
the people of Cold Springs are my responsibility.

Lily:They are yours to interfere in, you mean.

Christian:You call it interfering, I call it looking
out for them.

Lily:I was under the impression that it was
Sheriff Porter’s job to look out for the people of Cold Springs.

Christian:Yes, well, Kent’s a decent guy and all, but
he couldn’t look after his own backside if it weren’t right behind him all the
time.

Lily:(shakes
head)

Interviewer:What is your position in Cold Springs, Miss
Singer?

Lily:I teach the sixth grade at Cold Springs’
school.

Christian:And a finer teacher we’ve never had.

Lily:Thank you, Mr. Avery, I can speak for myself.

Christian:Oh, so it’s “Mr. Avery” now?

Lily:I suppose you would rather I call you “Mr.
Justice of the Peace”?

Christian:I’d rather you call me “Christian”, although
I’d settle for “Sweetheart”.

Lily:“Arrogant Blowhard” it is, then.

Christian:Hey!

Interviewer:So I understand that the two of you didn’t
exactly see eye-to-eye when you first met?

Christian:It was a simple misunderstanding, a conflict
of interest, if you will.

Lily:Christian was laboring under the
misapprehension that the best way to provide the highest quality education for
the children of Cold Springs was to separate the Native American children from
the rest of their peers.

Christian:I was merely making the point that not all of
the citizens of Cold Springs are as progressive as they should be.Even you have to admit, Lily, that things
were getting dangerous.

Lily:A few schoolboys starting a fight at recess
is hardly a riot.Boys will be boys,
which means they occasionally fight.

Christian:These were not small boys.

Lily:Did you fight when you were in school?

Christian:Well….Um….

Lily:My point exactly.

Interviewer:How did the two of you meet?

Christian:We met when Lily came to Cold Springs to be
interviewed for a teaching position at the new school.

Lily:I am a graduate of the Carlisle Indian
Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, but for the last several years I
have been teaching at a school in Chicago.

Interviewer:What made you decide to leave that school to
move to Montana?

Lily(pausing for a moment):I do not know much about my heritage.I was taken from my tribe when I was very
young.I…I had hoped that by moving to
Montana I might discover something about my people…(visibly upset) I’m sorry, I don’t think I can talk about this.

Christian(taking her hand):It’s all right, sweetheart, you don’t have to…(to the interviewer) Lily was far and
away the most qualified candidate for the job.The town council was a little hesitant when they learned she was an
Indian, but I was convinced she was the right woman for the job.

Interviewer:What convinced you of that?

Christian:Well, her experience, of course.And her eyes.And that stubborn look she has.Her soft hair….

Lily(frowning):Christian.

Christian:The way the light makes her skin look like
coffee with cream…..

Lily:Christian, really!

Christian:The way her school teacher dress settles over
the curve of her figure….

Interviewer:I see.And is it true that you caused Miss Singer to lose her job, Mr. Avery?

Christian:Uh….Well….You see….No comment.

Interviewer:
Lily?

Lily:No comment.

Interviewer:One final question.What do you think of the string of robberies
that are plaguing Cold Springs?Do you
believe the local Indian population is to blame?

Lily:Absolutely not!

Christian: Not at all.I’m sure it’s some fools who don’t have enough brains to rub together to
cause a spark.

Interviewer:But it seems as though most of the population
of Cold Springs disagrees with you.

Lily:People will believe what they want to
believe, particularly when those who look different from them are
involved.I am not too proud to say that
I am deeply concerned for the wellbeing of the Native American families living
nearby.

Christian:If anyone steps out of line, I’ll handle
it.This is my town and I will see to it
that all of its citizens are safe and happy.

Interviewer:Miss Singer, do you believe him?

Lily:I hate to encourage Mr. Avery’s arrogance,
but if anyone in Cold Springs can get to the bottom of these things, it will be
him.I only hope a peaceful solution is
possible.

Christian:It is and I’ll find it.And then I’ll move heaven and earth to make
sure that you, Miss Lily Singer, are the happiest woman in all of Montana.

Lily(crosses arms, arches eyebrow, slight smile):We’ll see.

Interviewer:I wish you the best of luck, Mr. Avery, in
solving the robberies and in winning Miss Singer’s heart.Looks like you have your work cut out for you
on both accounts.

If you’d like to read more about Lily Singer and Christian
Avery and the lives and troubles of the people of Cold Springs, be sure to pick
up a copy of In Your Arms by Merry Farmer at your soonest
possible convenience.

Lily Singer has never belonged. Taken from her tribe as a child and raised in a white man’s school, she no longer has a place in either world. Teaching has become her life. When that life is threatened by rumors and prejudice after a string of robberies, she must turn for help to the one man who spells disaster for her carefully ordered existence. Will he save her or steal her heart?

Christian Avery, Justice of the Peace, is used to having things his way. Cold Springs is his responsibility, and when its citizens blame the local Indian population for the mysterious robberies, it’s up to him to restore order and maintain calm. The one person who refuses to follow his lead is the beautiful, native-born Lily. Her defiance turns his life upside down.

But when town gossip shifts from robberies to romance after a foolish indiscretion, Lily’s job and reputation are on the line. She must choose between the only life she has ever known and the only place she has ever felt at home, in Christian’s arms.

About the Author:

Merry Farmer is an award-winning author of Historical Romance and what she likes to call “Sci-Fi for Women.” She lives in suburban Philadelphia with her two cats and enough story ideas to keep her writing until she’s 132. Her second novel, The Faithful Heart, was a 2102 RONE Award finalist and her unpublished futuristic novel A Man’s World won first place in the Novel: Character category at the 2013 Philadelphia Writer’s Conference. She is out to prove that you can make a living as a self-published author and to help others to do the same.

***GIVEAWAY TIME***

Merry Farmer and Badass Marketing are giving away ONE (1) e-book copy of In Your Arms AND ONE (1) $10 Amazon gift card. Both are open INTERNATIONALLY!! Please make sure you COMMENT on this blog post AND FILL OUT the RAFFLECOPTER FORM!

Monday, November 25, 2013

Leatherbound Reviews is pleased to announce our second blog tour! Join us January 7-15, 2014 for another diverting tour around the blogosphere with Meryton Press's soon-to-be-released novel, Alias Thomas Bennet by Suzan Lauder.

…of most interest to Bennet was
Mr. Darcy of Pemberley.

When Fitzwilliam
Darcy attends the Meryton assembly, he befriends a quiet, intelligent
gentleman. In frequent visits to his friend’s home, he becomes acquainted with
the Bennet family of Longbourn. Yet Mr. Darcy is distracted by a strange
feeling of having met some of them before.

This is a
different Bennet family from the cleverly crafted one in Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. This Mr. Bennet is
a responsible gentleman who takes an active role in the education and
upbringing of all five of his daughters, manages Longbourn to be prosperous,
and displays loving guidance toward Mrs. Bennet—a gentle, caring mother and
wife.

There is
a mystery lurking at Longbourn—a secret unknown even to Elizabeth Bennet—and Mr.
Darcy is entangled in its extraordinary revelations.

Who is Thomas Bennet?

This book contains one brief scene of non-explicit sexual
violence that may be concerning to sensitive readers. The sexual violence does
not include Elizabeth Bennet.

To join the Alias Thomas Bennet blog Tour, please fill out the form below!If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at jakki36 at yahoo dot com.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

William Darcy is obsessed with his ancestors. So much so that he intends to rebuild Pemberley (destroyed during the Uprising) stone by stone, and he wants to employ reconstruction expert Seraphene Grant to help him.

Or does he? Seraphene wasn’t born yesterday. She can smell a rat, particularly when it stinks all the way up to her airship. She knows Darcy is hiding something. But with the Authorities after her and her other options dwindling by the moment, the temptation of genuine English tea and a gorgeous Steampunk gentleman are very difficult to resist.

But what if Darcy’s mystery job courts nothing but trouble? What if Darcy is harboring a secret to kill for? When kiss comes to shove, will Darcy’s secret destroy Seraphene, or will it be her salvation?

Join us on a romantic adventure like no other in this whimsical Pride and Prejudice-inspired tribute, featuring Wickham, Georgiana, dirigibles, funky fish, and swash-buckling pirates.

Review:

Centuries have passed since Fitzwilliam Darcy and
his lovely bride, Elizabeth, began their journey together as husband and wife
on the magnificent estate of Pemberley. The simple days of strolling through
the dew-kissed grass, arms linked with the one you love, planning the life you
will build together are long gone. Now, that dew is likely composed of toxic
slime rain and is more likely to do physical harm than to merely dampen the hem
of your skirts. This is the post-Uprising world, where William Darcy lives and
works in what once was Boston, desperately trying to recreate that idyllic,
serene world in which his forebears lived. But, William’s ancestral Pemberley
has long since been destroyed, and it will take much work, and some help from
the beautifully strong-willed Seraphene, to make his vision come to life. Now,
if all these obstacles would somehow remove themselves, he could really get
down to work.

This was my first experience with steampunk. So, I
did some research before I began reading Steampunk
Darcy and set my expectations according to what I found. I expected a good
bit of brass and copper, Victorian clothes and hairstyles, and some
interweaving of history and sci-fi. I was not disappointed. I did not expect
sky pirates, a hairstyling automaton, or mutant fish. Those threw me just a
little.

Sky pirates notwithstanding, I am a sucker for a
story about a tough girl from the wrong side of the tracks who refuses to be
rescued from herself and the gentleman who finally takes her away. That is
exactly what Steampunk Darcy promises
and delivers. While there are many similarities between William Darcy’s love
story and that of his famous ancestors, there are enough differences to keep
his and Seraphene’s tale fresh. I am fairly sure, for example, that Elizabeth
Bennet never mastered the fine art of operating a dirigible. Ultimately, it is
a beautiful and genuine gesture that William makes with only Seraphene in mind
that earns him her trust and softens her heart – and mine.